A retired San Antonio truck company owner turned part-time poker player, Wright was sitting at the final table of a World Series of Poker tournament for just the second time, staring down six professional poker players – and four past WSOP champions.

Yet where he failed against eight-time champion Eric Seidel in Omaha in 2008, he succeeded against two-time champ Brandon Cantu in Las Vegas on Father's Day, taking home $101,975 at the Deuce-to-Seven Lowball tournament.

“What other sports can a 58-year-old win in a young man's world?” Wright said. “These young kids were playing mind games with each other, but I just played a safe strategy.”

Wright said that while his family was there rooting for him, he knew they weren't the only ones who needed him to win. Wright said he will donate most of this money to a charity that helps build houses in the Sudan.

“I had a vision that I was going to win this event, and now it's my turn to help those families (in Africa),” Wright said.

Wright will keep enough money to pay the taxes on his prize, as well as the buy-in for the four remaining WSOP events he plans to enter.

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Wright said that, while most of the coverage of his win casts him as a wide-eyed amateur who learned to play Deuce-to-Seven style poker just days before the event, in reality his age and experience put him in a prime position to win.

Deuce-to-Seven — in which the lowest hand wins, flushes and straights count against the player and a 2-3-4-5-7 hand trumps all — is a rare, old-time variant of the game, and is very hard to find instructions for, according to Wright.

“It's a game you have to learn by playing, instead of instruction,” Wright said. “I'd actually played it back in the '70s, but these other pros thought I had no knowledge of it ... and that's what you want them to think. You want them thinking (your success) is luck while you take their chips.”

While professionals may not have heard of Wright, his play is anything but amateur. According to the Hendon Mob poker database, Wright has won $382,483 in the past decade, amassing 15 top-ten finishes and even winning a smaller tournament in Las Vegas this February.

Yet until Sunday, he still hadn't reached the benchmark of WSOP success: earning a gold bracelet, the trophy for winning one of the 61 events in the series. Wright's win came in event No. 30, and he plans to compete in four more, including the Main Event: a $10,000 buy-in, no limit tournament of Texas Hold 'Em.